One of the more common methods of dispensing injectable medications in the sterile environment of a procedure or operating room is to have an assistant manually holding the vial of medication while a medical professional extracts the medication from the vial using a syringe. This conventional method poses several inherent dangers to the patient receiving the medication as well as the health care professionals and assistants involved in administering it. First, the professional must approach the assistant with the syringe, and must place the needle into the vial of medication while maintaining sterility. This introduces the potential for the assistant to suffer a needle stick injury, possibly resulting in associated infection. Second, an assistant approaching the sterile field with the vial of medication is typically themselves non-sterile. This increases the possibility that the sterile field will become inadvertently contaminated. Third, a medication vial being held by the assistant is typically not directly visually accessible to the professional, thus the professional is commonly forced to rely upon the assistant to verify that the vial contains the correct medication. This increases the chance that an incorrect medication will be drawn into the syringe, placing a patient at further significant risk.
When a medical professional is acting alone in preparing an injection, they must hold the medicine vial with one hand and direct the exposed needle into the vial with the other hand. This poses a threat to the professional since the needle is being aimed at a portion of their body.
What is needed is a system and method allowing the capture and retention of one or more vials of medication in which the tops of the vials remain exposed for puncturing by a syringe and extraction of the medication. Such systems and methods should allow the medical professional to verify which medications are being drawn into respective syringes from each retained vial. Since medical procedures are performed at a variety of heights, depending upon variations in the operating theater and the physical stature of the practitioner, such a system would preferably be rapidly adjustable in the vertical direction.